Iran puts Hamaseh UAV on export market

By Stephen Trimble2017-07-18T18:30:59+01:00

A year after the Iranian military fielded the Hamaseh unmanned air vehicle (UAV), Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries now offers the long-endurance surveillance and attack system on the export market.

The Iranian company displayed a model of the single-engined, twin-boomed Hamaseh on its exhibit booth at the MAKS air show on 18 July, offering the first glimpse of Iran’s most capable UAV outside the country’s domestic industry events, says Mehrooz Hassanzadeh, export manager for the Hamaseh programme.

Asked if the Russian military is an export target, Hassanzadeh allows that it “may be”, but does not offer details.

The Hamaseh – a Persian word meaning “epic” – was displayed in public first in 2013, featuring a bulbous forward radome and the UAV’s distinctive twin-boomed tails. After it entered service three years later, Hamaseh’s appearance was tweaked with a more conventional radome appearance to become not unlike the fuselage profile of the Israel Aerospace Industries Eitan/Heron TP UAV, although the Iranian product is an order of magnitude smaller.

Hassanzadeh confirms many of the details already reported about the aircraft in the Iranian press. The 415kg (915lb) UAV can carry sensors or weapons up to 15,000ft with a maximum endurance of 11h. Despite the promised endurance and a 59kt (110km/h) loiter speed, the Hamaseh is listed with a maximum range of 200km (108nm). It can take-off using a runway or assisted by disposal rockets, and recovers using landing gear or a parachute in emergency situations, he says.

The aircraft carries several types of sensors, including synthetic aperture radar, communications or radar jammers and a photographic camera. Weapon options for wing-mounted hard points include small bombs, grenades and rockets.

Hassanzadeh declines to disclose the origins of the two-bladed piston pusher engine powering the Hamaseh UAV. He says only that the company calls it the “Hamaseh engine”.

More Civil UAVs

The company says the UAV demonstration showed how on-board sensors could be used for “inspections of hundreds of miles of rail, power line, communication and canal infrastructure, agriculture monitoring and topological surveys, as well as wildfire and flood monitoring.”

Japan Airlines has conducted the first series of test flights using UAVs to transport freight, including one involving fresh fish from Nagasaki to a Tokyo restaurant. The flights, which spanned two days, were operated in cooperation with the Nagasaki Prefecture government. JAL adds that Yamaha Motor piloted the UAV ...

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